Charleston Firefighter Rescues Pony in Pool

CHARLESTON -- Wednesday morning the Charleston Fire Department was called out to a very unusual call. A resident reported seeing a deer in a neighbors pool, it turns out it was a pony.

"It was sitting right here with it's head sticking out from underneath here," explained firefighter Brandon Helm who helped the pony. He said the Fire Chief called him specifically because Helm trains and owns several horses and knew what to do.

"I was able to pet it on the head and calm it down and I got the cover off to assess to see if it was hurt or not," explained Helm. The horse didn't have any injuries, the firefighter said if it did, they might have had to sedate it in order to pull it out.

Helm believes the pony broke free from the neighboring yard, went over the fence and walked onto the pools cover, not realizing it wasn't solid ground.

"So I ended picking his hoof up, pulled on the butt rope a little bit and enticed him to go a head and jump on out," said Helm. "He was cold enough he jumped out to the side there and they were able to pull him the rest of the way out."

The pool had about 2 feet of water and Helm said the bottom was slick because of algae. No one currently lives in the house.

"It actually feels good to know that my knowledge of horses was able to be used for the department because most of the time I get teased for riding my horses into town," said Helm.

The pony's owner was not available for comment.

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